Newly released emails show that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign was struggling internally to avoid the issue of whether she supported a $15 per hour federal minimum wage.
Campaign staffers strictly vetted all speeches to obscure the issue and discussed strategies for how to avoid discussing it whenever she was in front of an audience interested in it, according to emails from the inbox of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, that were released by WikiLeaks.
The campaign’s problem was that Clinton only supported a raise to $12 an hour, still a substantial increase from the current federal rate of $7.25. But many liberal activists preferred $15 and this became a major issue in the primary since Clinton’s chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., supported the higher wage. The campaign’s solution was to try to create the impression that she supported $15 without explicitly saying so, presumably to give Clinton wiggle room later on.
“This reads like she’s for a $15 minimum wage and I think we have to choose our language more carefully. Reporters will not cut us any slack on this,” campaign staffer Joel Benenson said in a March 2 email to other staffers. They were editing a speech Clinton would give for a New York City labor rally the next day.
Nikki Budzinski, who runs labor union outreach for the campaign, responded 20 minutes by saying he was also worried. “And she says in the [Service Employees International Union] video receiving their endorsement that she stands with workers ‘Fighting for 15 and a union’. That was what we were referencing in her remarks. Maybe that should be more clear? But I wouldn’t want to see us take out that line too,” Budzinski said.
The effort seems to have been in vain. The following month, Clinton declared in a debate with Sanders that she would sign legislation making the federal rate $15. Her official campaign website, however, does not mention the minimum wage in its issues section.
The minimum wage issue was a treacherous one for Clinton. Campaign insiders strongly warned against supporting it, arguing an increase that high would hurt the economy. “Substantively, we have not supported $15 — you will get a fair number of liberal economists who will say it will lose jobs,” said campaign adviser Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, in an April 2015 email.
Staffer Brian Fallon breathed a sigh of relief in a June 2015 email to Podesta when a Bloomberg story on the issue came out the way they wanted. “This one came out well, I think — emphasizing her support for a higher min wage but getting it right that she hasn’t endorsed 15 yet.”
The campaign was under heavy pressure to back it anyway. This became a problem for them in the primaries when they were trying to prevent liberal groups from backing Sanders over Clinton. The campaign tried to finesse the issue by having Clinton say that she supported the activists who were pushing for it and leave it at that. She would also explicitly endorse some state and local efforts to raise their rates to $15.
It was a tricky balancing act as the emails show. In a November exchange with other staffers, Budzinski warned that the “lack of clarity” was complicating their efforts to get the endorsement of SEIU Local 1199, one of the union’s largest branches. “Many of the 1199 (executive) board meeting voiced concern around where the Secretary is on the minimum wage increase to $15 rather than $12. The EBoard asked George as a part of endorsement recommendation to raise this issue up during the SEIU International endorsement vote,” she said.
“George” was presumably a reference to George Gresham, president of SEIU 1199. Budzinski said the issue could cost Clinton the backing of SEIU 1199, which could complicate the effort to get the full SEIU endorsement, though the staffer added that they probably had the support to win it anyway.
A few days later, Clinton got the full union’s endorsement. In a statement thanking the union, Clinton said, “SEIU has led the fight to raise incomes for hardworking Americans, including the fight for a $15 minimum wage in cities across the country.” Tellingly, the statement did not say that Clinton shared that stance.
In an April debate with Sanders, Clinton went the furthest she has gone on the issue so far. Asked if she would sign legislation passed by a Democratic Congress for a $15 minimum wage bill. Clinton replied, “Well, of course I would. And I have supported the fight for $15. I am proud to have the endorsement of most of the unions that have led the fight for $15. I was proud to stand on the stage with (New York) Governor (Andrew) Cuomo, with SEIU and others who have been leading this battle and I will work as hard as I can to raise the minimum wage. I always have. I supported that when I was in the Senate.”
Clinton then added that they had to be “smart” about the policy. The rate would have to be phased it in and that the increases shouldn’t necessarily be the same for all places. She cited New York as an example. “If you look at it, we moved more quickly to $15 in New York City, (but) more deliberately toward $12, $12.50 upstate then to $15. That is exactly my position. It’s a model for the nation and that’s what I will do as president.”
Sanders replied that a lot of people would be surprised to hear that. “When this campaign began, I said that we got to end the starvation minimum wage of $7.25, raise it to $15. Secretary Clinton said let’s raise it to $12. There’s a difference,” he said.
